Noplace App Takes Over Apple Charts, Mixes MySpace and Twitter for Gen Z

Courtesy of Noplace

• Noplace, a new social media app, topped Apple’s App Store charts this week.
• The app, created by Tiffany “TZ” Zhong, offers a text-based feed for Gen Z users.
• Business Insider spoke with Zhong about creating a viral app and the fear of becoming a “fad.”

There’s a new app in town.

Noplace, a text feed that looks like a Gen Z baby on MySpace and Twitter, is dominating Apple’s App Store charts this week.

The social media app is the brainchild of Tiffany “TZ” Zhong, a 27-year-old founder and serial investor whose tech career took off in her late teens.

Instead of stressing over carefully curating posts, the app encourages users to share their stream-of-consciousness thoughts directly to the news feed. Users can also create a customizable color-block profile to display what they’re listening to, watching, eating, doing, and feeling.

The app lets you connect with other users based on shared interests, or “stars,” as the app calls them. Once you’ve added your new connections, you can pin your top 10 friends to your profile and use the friends-only feed.

According to its App Store description, the app aims to harken back to the era of social media before “algorithms and ads” took over.

This isn’t the first time Noplace has been in the spotlight. Earlier this year, the app attracted 500,000 people to its waiting list ahead of its release, after generating buzz through viral TikToks.

As users grow weary of social media giants like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, new social media platforms have entered the arena, vying for a chance to become the new “it” platform.

In 2020, it was Clubhouse; in 2022, it was BeReal (which recently sold for €500 million); and in 2023, there has been a deluge of apps ranging from Lapse to ByteDance’s Lemon8 that have each had their moment of glory.

“We’re all competing for people’s attention, especially Gen Z, and time,” Zhong told Business Insider.

Courtesy of Noplace

How to Create a Viral App

While Noplace had nearly half a million users on its waitlist last month, the app had been in testing for much longer and even had a different name.

Zhong began testing the app, then called Nospace, in late 2023 with a smaller number of users who would have to wait and receive invitation codes to access the app.

“When we started doing waitlists, it was really just a way for people to reserve their username,” Zhong said. “I wanted people to feel excited and comfortable.”

She and her small team of seven continued to test the app in a closed environment, which allowed them to iterate quickly, remove unnecessary features, navigate trust and security, and “double down on the things that work,” Zhong added.

As the app gained popularity, Zhong received a cease-and-desist letter in April from another company. Zhong declined to name the company, but one can speculate.

So Nospace changed its name. The company also took advantage of the event to turn to TikTok to promote the renaming process. Zhong said they received thousands of applications until one app user suggested Noplace. App users then voted to approve it.

“It was a really fun marketing moment for us and it was very collaborative,” Zhong said. “The vibe is like… ‘there’s no place like home, no place like here.’”

Courtesy of Noplace

Avoid being a “fad” and learn from Big Tech’s trials and triumphs

As Zhong has built and continues to build Noplace, many decisions come directly from user feedback.

“I spend a lot of time talking to them, understanding what they think about certain features, what they think about the product, what makes them want to spend more time in the app, what they get out of the app,” Zhong said.

It particularly tracks the behavior of Noplace’s “power users,” some of whom spend as much as eight to 10 hours on the app, Zhong said.

From the beginning, his goal was to “create a place where people can express themselves” and find community. And in an era where social media platforms prioritize entertainment over social interaction, Noplace feels timely.

Zhong compared his app to legacy players like Twitter, TikTok, and even Reddit: “A lot of its content is not community-oriented and is more about consuming content and media. Reddit, for example… it’s really good for getting information. I use it to get information, not to connect with people.”

Reddit is also a major source of inspiration for Zhong’s app, as one of Reddit’s founders, Alexis Ohanian, advised Zhong on his app and his company 776 invested in his previous venture, Islands XYZ.

“He’s seen how this company has evolved over time, but it’s also very much aligned with his experience on Reddit, and that’s been very helpful to him,” Zhong said. Like on Reddit, pseudonyms are very common and part of the experience on Noplace.

However, as Zhong looks to the future, she is wary of following in the footsteps of social media giants when it comes to evolving the app and adding more features.

“I want to be very careful not to overload the app too much,” she said. “That’s kind of the problem with a lot of social apps.”

However, Noplace plans to expand its group chat features with AI tools that can help strengthen conversations.

And staying relevant, Zhong knows, will be the next test for Noplace.

“The biggest risk is a fad,” she said. “It’s hard, social apps are more art than science. There’s not really a clear strategy.”